Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Here's an easy way to make something fun for medium and large parrots.

Parrots like to tear things up. They also like to eat. The two together constitute their foraging instinct, and it's important to give them ways to exercise that.

I don't recall where I got this idea, but the wrappers used for spring rolls are a fantastic way to add a little foraging to your birds day. They are thin rice paper that comes in hard sheets. They are tasteless and, as far as "food" goes, pretty inert.

I just soak the wrappers in a pan of water for a few minutes, until they get soft. They get a little hard to work with if they get too soft, but it's still pretty simple to roll up some parrot treats, or even just ordinary food (or a toy, or literally anything).

I used a counter top oven that has a dehydrate setting to firm up little balls of covered treats in about 30 minutes. But I found you can also just put them on a plate in the refrigerator for about a day and a half.

Harlan loves these! The texture ranges from slightly soft and chewy, but solid, to completely hard and crunchy, depending on how long they sit. He has to break through the shell, which he discards, to get the food.

I found the smaller birds, cockatiels, have a harder time breaking the shells open and tend to loose interest before finding out there is a treat inside, but Harlan has a great time with these treats and gets excited whenever he seed me making them.